Donna
02/25/2011, Santiago Bay on 2/24

2/22 We awaken in Maruata to some cool air and haze. We have the anchor up, a cup of coffee in each of our hands, and sailing by 7:40 AM. It's a quiet day of puttering along at 4-5 knots, and arrive in Cabeeza Negra at 5:15 Pm. As we arrive, a couple of whales and a group of dolphins put on a "welcoming" show for us. We are again, the only boat in the anchorage. In the morning, we wonder if it is because the anchorage was rockin' and rollin' all night long, at (we swear!) a 45 degree angle - both directions! Did we sleep? You figure it out!
2/23 and we are off on our last leg in Manzanillo - whew! We love Zihuatenajo, and we know, it's a trip both ways, but It's always good to get to Manzanillo. It's kind of a quiet sail, we get out our Nooks and curl up in the shade and read. We anchor in Las Hadas at 7:30 PM, just before dark. Sleep comes easily.
2/24 And it's a new day. We connect with family and friends or their voice mails. Darryl and I take "Luffin It" into the diesel fuel dock and what an experience. The cleats are rusted and falling apart, some out of the dock. The dock is an odd shape, but Capitano Darryl gets it in there, we tie it down best we can and fill her up with diesel. Darryl leaves to pay the bill - I think a mile at least away (a bit of exaggeration, but a good distance). I suddenly notice that the lines are being peeled away by the surges of suf in the marina. I grab extra lines, add additional tiedowns, and as I get the last one on, the original lines break. I quickly put on extra lines everywhere I could possibly make them fit and we hung tight, despite the surges, until Capitano returned. It seemed like ages! We've decided that will be the last time we get diesel there. We anchor, and then get on our bathingsuits, grab our nooks, and head for the swimming pool. We have a snack and drinks and then spend the afternoon in the pool, and meet a lot of lovely cruisers, doing the same. Duane and Joy of Sailing boat Happy Nest and their friends Don and Jackie of Little Christian are from Yakima, so we have lots to share, since one daughter still lives there and I used to call it home. We also meet Dick and Nancy of Askari who are just returning from 11 ½ years circumnavigation of the globe and we are fascinated! The four of us end up going to a delightful restaurant for dinner and 4 hours later, laughing, talking and sharing wild and wonderful stories, it's after 10 and we need to get back to our boats. What a delightful day!
2/25 and it's a slow morning. Darryl cleans boat filters (water maker, engine raw waterfilter) while I make bread. After lunch, we motor over to Santiago Bay and drop anchor. We take the scenic route around the bay and enjoy seeing all the beautiful seashore homes. We think we'll head for the local market tomorrow.

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D & D
02/23/2011, Zihuatanejo Cooking Class

Ok, last piucture from the cooking class, but this shows the finished product - basically a Pablamo pepper, burned and peeled,stuffed with 3 different cheeses, then dipped into a batter of whipped eggs and fried quickly. The sauce that accompanied it was delicious!

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D & D
02/22/2011, Zihuatanejo Cooking Class

We participated in the course. . . Darryl and I are making this mexican dinner for all friends when we return! you are all invited.

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D & D
02/22/2011, Zihuatanejo

Ok. Don't laugh at the picture, but we just didn't know we were getting "shot".

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D & D
02/22/2011, Pacific Ocean

Picture is taken the night of 2/19 while we sailed toward Caleta de Campos.
2/17 Donna bakes bread; Darryl installs a circuit breaker for the new wind generator. We swim and watch a whale come visit in our little place of heaven called Petatlan. Hamburgers for dinner out in the cockpit as we watch the sun go down in the west and the moon rise simultaneously in the east - We revel in the beauty of it all.
2/18 and it's up and we take our time, as we have a short distance to go to Isla Grande near Ixtapa. On the way, we see the usual whales, dolphins flying fish. It's an easy day on the water, in preparation for tomorrow, we soon find out!
2/19 and we pull up anchor at 3:30 AM (yes, you read that right!). The stars are out, the moon is overhead and it's not too dark, thanks to the full moon. We are sailing through Lazaro Cardenes around 11 AM with huge tankers and cargo ships to watch out for, but we navigate without a problem. We have great winds so far ---until around 1, where the wind switches to right on our nose, the waves rise to 4-6 feet and our forward progress slows to a crawl. To cut to the ending, we arrive in Caleta de Campos and anchor at 10:40PM and it's difficult for both of us. . . we are bone tired, we can't make out the lights and shapes very well, and have to rely on our flashlights, radar and the moon that has just showed itself. We are grateful to find that we are the only boat in the anchorage and have a ton of room and thank goodness, anchor without a hitch. We are both exhausted and sleep the sleep of the dead.
2/20 and it's lovely morning; we enjoy breakfast in cockpit and are happy to meet a young man who swims out from shore - Gabriel - to meet and greet us. He shares that his home is San Francisco but he was born in Mexico and came down for 3 months to visit his girlfriend and help out in her restaurant. He's a chef in San Fran. We decide we'll dinghy into town and take a good walk, then eat with Gabriel. It's amazing, while we are walking, how many Mexican families stop and greet us in their halting English and we, in turn, manage a small conversation with our poor Spanish. We feel very welcome here. The fishermen wave and - as we land our dinghy, I take a wrong step and land full face in the water! I come up and I'm laughing and the fishermen on the shore are laughing! I point my fingers at them and tease them - "I caught you!" I say and they blush happily! So, I was cool and the walk was delightful to begin my drying out! The lunch was ajo de Camaron (garlic and shrimp) and it was delicious! In the afternoon, 2 other sailboats join us; Darryl works on retying the anchor rode (chain) to the rope as he felt the current connection was starting to wear. He does a great job. It's time for dinner, for cards, for reading and finally bed.
2/21 We awaken to find that one of the boats has drifted in the night closer to us than we are comfortable. So, we get the coffee on, pull up the anchor and leave for Maruata around 8:40 AM. I make some boatmeal (oatmeal, brown sugar, apples, eggs, milk, cinnamon, butter) and bake it in the oven and we enjoy it while we are underway! I also toss in other ingredients, so today's mystery ingredient was a large dollop of peanut butter. Yum, Yum! (Darryl: Donna often complains that I always compliment her cooking. I merely ask if she would prefer that I don't, but that would be lying. She happens to be a great and inventive cook. So...what's to complain about?) Whales visit us and the boat sails for awhile without motor, which is lovely and quiet! Then, it slows to the point that we put on the motor.

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D & D
02/17/2011, Arrive in Petatlan

2/13 Well, it's the day before Valentine's Day and we decide to "treat ourselves" to a special dinner a day early. We finish a few chores, then "dinghy in" and take a good long walk; I buy s beautiful hand painted bowl from a lady I've watched painting them in the last few days. . . I'm happy with my purchase. Around 6, we find a lovely restaurant, perched on the edge of the cliffs surrounding Zihuatenejo and like their menu. We are seated at "the best seat in the restaurant", overlooking the bay, and practically hanging over the cliff! We watch a spectacular sunset and have a delicious meal - fillet Red Snapper and many grilled vegetables, cooked to perfection. The flan makes a nice finale! It's a memorable night.
2/14 And it's our Cooking class day- websitehttp://www.zihuatanejocookingschool.com/. Surf is down, we go in early to La Ropa and walk about a mile or so to the place. What a lovely time we had! We met 2 other delightful couples, and a gentleman, Alan, who were also in our class. We all got along great, and the hostess and chef made it memorable. We ate everything cooked, so we truly waddled back home. The menu? Black bean soup, quesideas with squash blossoms, and Chille rellenos with shrimp and a hibiscus tea. Delicious! We finished around 2:30.
2/15 And we are getting itch feet to move on. We've both enjoyed this place, but we are ready to move. We get our clean laundry and prepare to leave tomorrow, which means a trip to Commercial" to provision the boat.
2/16 And we get ready to leave, which means that we have both anchors to pull up and - because we've stayed so long, the anchors need scrubbing before we put them away, so this is a 1 ½ hour job for the two of us and we finally are up and moving. We are heading south, just a short distance away, but to a spectacular beach area called Petatlan. Once we are on the water, we turn off the motor and just leisurely sail. A whale crosses our bow and we tell him, he was a bit too close for our comfort at about 25', but he ignores us and moves on, gracefully moving through the water. And just when we think we've seen everything, we are surrounded by thousands of very small jellyfish, each about the size of a quarter, with tendrils hanging down as streamers. These surround our boat for 20 minutes while we sail through. Amazing site and we both hang over the side of the boat and stare. We arrive at Petatan and we know it's just what we need! It's quite beautiful, with small uninhabited islands off toward the ocean, lots of open area, a long beach and we are the only sailboat. We anchor and then both hop in the water (80 degrees) for the next 2 hours. We swim, but also have a goal of scrubbing the bottom of our boat that has collected some growth in the bay. It's wonderful, the water is clean and clear; we can see the little fish that are nearby while we swim. We both sleep well.
2/17 We think we'll stay here another day and just swim and read and enjoy the ocean.

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